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is there some rule somewhere that you have to have fully enclosed knife blades on jobsites? Or something. As I don’t see the need or appeal. Other than to have a double safed utility blade. Meanwhile I’ve been using my olfa cutter that I got in the promotion and I like it. Well other than the metal fin.

My son-in-law works for a large energy utility in the southeast and his crew members started complaining to him that all the new utility blades were dull. After some inquiries he found that HR was having all the blades intentionally dulled before they were distributed to workers. Turns out this was HR’s misguided attempt to reduce cutting injuries.

That’s an issue not just with HR of safety folks but also with designers and engineers too. Before you design something or formulate a regulation – its works out much better if you have some experience with the use of the thing you are designing. Absent that, you should at least consult with folks who know.
We did plumbing – pipefitting work on both small and large piping systems. On one job, some hand operated gate valves on 12 inch lines that were so far off of the nearest platforms you would need a ladder to access them. While they may well have been infrequently operated, did you ever try to close a 12 inch valve while standing on a ladder 10 or 12 feet off the ground. I suspect that the “engineer” who designed the system had not thought about it.

I have one of the retractable folding Dewalt knives at my office. I hate the thing, it’s actually more dangerous in my opinion. If you forget to retract it and then try to fold it closed, it can spring back open and cut you since the blade blocks it from closing. My favorite is still the Milwaukee FastBack

Dewalts folding knife is the best. Not dangerous at all. It locks open and the blade stays in with any pressure on it. ..the blade won’t come out until you remove it, they’re small, slim, and comfortable….not a fan of the Milwaukee fast back….
Dewalt is phasing out the rounder model I like so I bought 20….hate squared off knifes…

Seems like this is a slimmed and squared off non-retractable version of the original HT10035.

Yes, that little button on the black end is the blade release button. Identical design to the 35. Difference is that there’s no retractor, making it smaller. The Lanyard triangle is new, but not exactly welcomed, as it’s extremely redundant with the pocket clip, and the folding action. And if it’s on a Lanyard so that it can dangle somewhere in the open position, you are now holding a randomly swinging blade… which is stupid…

And, yes… That HAS to be a liner lock, because, again, like the 35, that little round bit sticking out the bottom edge is the opening button to the blade storage in the back of the handle.

There’s a lot more features in the old 35 that I’d miss in this 910. The wire/string cutter, the weight and rounded ergonomic design… I’m just glad I have my 35 still, and am not forced to take up this one.

Plus… Unlike the knife enthusiasts around here, I don’t believe the DeWALT or SBD marketing divisions even know the difference between a liner lock, or a lock back mechanism. I’m pretty sure they call everything they call a knife, that can lock open, a “Lock Back Knife” out of ignorance. Power tools and such, they can handle. Simple features of hand tools… Years on, they’re still clueless about the terminology.

I use short lanyards on knives with pocket clips that carry deep. I don’t have to fumble about if I’m sitting and my pockets are tight. I just give it a quick tug and it’s ready to go. I don’t think it’s intended as a neck knife…

Yeah, usually that’s fine, Steve. But, this is a non-retractable, liner-lock, folding utility knife. It’s really short, especially folded. The Lanyard makes sense on larger knives, but not these safety knives. If the pointy end is swinging, it’s a danger, even on a short swing. You’d have to catch it if it is a matter of it slipping, and a swinging knife is harder to protect yourself from than a falling one. You can dodge the falling one, and let the ground take the damage, as well as yelling out “Dropped Knife!” at the top of your lungs to clear people out of the way.

As I said, NORMALLY you could use knives redundantly like you do, and be safe. But a utility blade is significantly sharper, and more dangerous, than a standard locked open or closed blade in your pocket. But these things are incredibly dangerous. Remember, we’re not just talking the two-sided standard blades in these knives. There’s hook blades, serrated blades, graphite pencil blades, and a range of specialty Carbide or Reinforced blades that this knife can hold. If one of those things is swinging from your pocket or wrist, that sucker is going to draw blood if you drop it.

And, yes, I have used the Pencil blades in my HT10035 before. THEY are dangerous because they’re fragile and shatter, causing shrapnel. Great idea for scoring a project, but remarkably gimmicky.

I agree that those Accutrax pencil “knife blades” are more gimmick than useful.
Funny they come up – because I just got an email from Woodpeckers that offers to bundle a set of them in for “free” if you buy a Woodpeckers 6 or 8 inch precision square (both “on sale” for $59.99 and $79.99 respectively). I’m not sure that bundling the Accutrax blades in makes it a good deal.

Honestly? My only REAL complaint about them is that it’s not a hybrid blade, it’s just graphite shaped into a blade shape. the little notches for locking them in place are so fragile they break if you sneeze while using them. No, I’m not kidding. I marked a piece of wood with the first blade, some dust got up my nose, and I sneezed. The blade was suddenly no longer fixed in place, but slid in and out a bit. Unlocked it, pulled it out, snapped the graphite indents where the knife holds them in place.

I genuinely wouldn’t mind these as much if they had some sort of metal T-shape to hold them in the knife, and the graphite just filled in the rest of the shape. They’d be stronger, AND stay IN the knife easier.

I really like the IDEA of them, but I’m not exactly fond of their execution. I bought them from Lee Valley, in a 3-pack. I have yet to start using the other two in the pack after the sneezing incident.

To be clear, how I utilize lanyard holes in blades is usually with a 1-3 inch tail for retreival and grip. No loops, no dangling or swinging. As sharp as I try to keep my blades, I definitely don’t need them not directly under my control.

On smaller folders, I’ll usually have a bulky stub of cord to increase the length of the handle when in hand, but be flexible so it doesn’t dig into me when I’m rolling around.

I think of lanyard holes more as “convient attachment points” than using a lanyard for neck or wrist.

That’s very smart use of the Lanyard Hole, Steve! But, I think we both know the problem with that… Not everyone in this world heeds your, quite reasonable and intelligent, advice on how to use the Lanyard Hole/Ring on a given knife.

Unfortunately, I can only speak of what is properly known as “Idiots”… The ones that make our lives hell, because everyone and their dog seems to want everything around them wrapped in bubble wrap. If there were more people using Lanyards the way you are, the world would be a better place. But, sadly, no matter how hard we try… The Idiots Rule The Earth… There aren’t a whole lot of them visiting ToolGuyd, to my knowledge, but out in the rest of the world? Yeah… We gotta face them… And we gotta anticipate their abuses of simple stuff.

Steve, if we didn’t have Idiots in the world, I never would have had to have this conversation with you. I hope you didn’t take it personally… because I honestly hope some of the Idiots learn from your example for the use of that Lanyard Hole/Loop/Attachment Point.

I have and still use the 1st gen Dewalt utility knives with blade storage that fold out. I bought em close to 10 years ago in a 2 set for like $15. Damn good utility knives. And unlike the fastback knives which you have to undo the blade storage in the handle and change out the dull blade every time , the Dewalt knife has the blade storage where the retractable mechanism is. Take the dull one out, retract, and out comes a new one. Plus the Dewalt one doesn’t have a gimmicky name. The housing on these look a lot cooler than the ones I bought and the paint is almost gone on mine so I’ll be sure to re-up when they hit the stores.

I’m guessing that I got my first utility knife about 60 years ago – it was a fixed-blade Stanley that was a bit encrusted with glue – and was a hand-me-down. Many years later, we had a couple of Australians working for us – and they called all our utility knives (be they Lenox, Olfa, Stanley or Tajima) “Stanley knives.” The one I use most now is a Tajima VR-103 that hangs in the garage. Its is a self-retracting model – that I picked because it thought it might be safer for the young hands that often are rummaging in my garage. I don’t know if that’s really true – but I like the knife well enough for general purpose tasks. For carpentry, flooring and many other tasks – I switch to an Olfa or Stanley.

That’s actually a 2nd Gen Utility Knife, TOTT. It was released the year after the HT10035 that was linked to in the post. The 35 is the 1st Gen knife that started DeWALT down this folding utility knife path. They’re based off the same folding design, but yours had the quick-change feature, where the blade storage was in the quick-changer, not the handle. The 35, and this 916, have the storage in the handle. They hold 3 blades in a little clip.

Not important, just interesting to know. Both the 35 and yours (I think it was the 261… It’d say on the handle.) were really great knives! But, for some reason, DeWALT seems to be phasing them out for ones more like his 916 in the above article.

I have two of both, and both have been excellent knives. I find the ergonomics better on the latter (gray with handle storage), but the previous model (yellow auto loader as I call it) to be favored for it’s convenience when I’m doing a lot of cutting, scoring, etc on a job.

The Turboknife X that I got more than 10 years ago is the only utility knife I really liked. Wish I’d known back then, because I would have bought a bunch of them in case I ever lose the one I have. The new version of the knife seem to get awful reviews, so I didn’t bother buying it. I just didn’t like any of the folding or sliding utility knives I’ve tried lately. They always seem to have one thing or another that I just really dislike about them.

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